Yes It’s 2016 – Is Your SEO Campaign Ready?

A new year is here, meaning it is time to re-evaluate current SEO techniques and plan for future ones. SEO is constantly changing, along with Google’s search algorithms. As we enter a new year, there are many predictions in what a good SEO company should look for in trends for obtaining the best SEO. Based on the progressive changes Google made in 2015, following are some thoughts on how SEO is likely to change this year.

Changes in Search Priorities

While delivering quality, informative content remains a priority for Google, the way Google wants to see it delivered is changing. General knowledge sites are losing value, while niche sites are gaining it - at least when they are providing high quality, relevant content. Social media, while it does not actually provide content, is beginning to become more valuable as a gateway to websites, with Google finding new ways to feature relevant social posts and tweets in their regular search results.

Also, mobile-friendly websites are definitely beginning to take priority over desktop sites - something that Google has made obvious with its new “mobile-friendly” label, which rewards websites with mobile capabilities, and penalizes those that are not mobile friendly. Google no longer pays much attention to desktop-only websites. It is likely that all of these things will become more prominent this year and beyond.

Advances in Local Search

Throughout the past year, Google has been fine tuning its local search in many ways. With the introduction of wearable technology, local search will become even more important. Information like geographic-based searches, city, and even neighborhood level search results are gaining in significance, as is voice-based, local search for mobile. What this means is that SEO needs to be location-based for a business to get the best website results, if local search applies to them in any way.

New Linking Strategies

Link building will always have its place, but some believe there are new strategies underway in link building. Brand mentions are an indirect means of linking, and a method that is gaining in popularity. Reviews and offsite mentions, also acting as indirect links, are gaining more relevance, as user-generated content is becoming more accepted overall.

Good User Experience is Essential

In 2015, the term UX (user experience) was recognized. Google is definitely pushing to acknowledge websites based on UX, along with a few other main criteria - like content and local search. Ranking websites by the quality of user experience offered, is quickly becoming a critical factor in SEO, and something a business must pay attention to - just like mobile-friendliness. Between the need for mobile accessibility and good UX, it may be time for many websites to go through an overhaul by the best SEO company, in order to keep up with SEO.

As history has proven, Google’s changes during the previous year can usually indicate the direction that SEO for the coming year needs to go. For better SEO in 2016, the best SEO companies will want to look into techniques that focus around the ideas mentioned above, as user experience, newer link building methods and search priorities - along with more advanced local searches - become of greater significance for generating SEO!